


After the Fall

by Hippywhippy



Category: Satan and Me (Webcomic)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:27:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26486410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hippywhippy/pseuds/Hippywhippy
Summary: No one knew what leaving heaven would entail. Everyone turned to Lucifer for guidance- and Lucifer turned to Ipos.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	After the Fall

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not really sure what to rate this; mentions of violence, mutilation and death, but it's all pretty mild. 
> 
> I haven't written anything since 2017! Isn't that terrible? Hopefully I'll be finishing some older fics and posting them soon.

“Leader?’” Ipos peaked around the tattered curtain of Lucifer's tent. “Everyone has fallen ill, and we… oh.”  
Lucifer was keeled over, holding his head. His horns had already grown through, and they were bloody and sore looking. Ipos winced, his head pounding; the tips of his horns had only just started to break through the skin, and although it hurt, it wasn't half as bad as how Lucifer looked.  
“Shit.”  
He went and got a bucket of water from a nearby river, and tore up more of his robe. He wet the scraps of cloth and used them to wipe away the blood and vomit Lucifer was covered in. “Can you hear me?”  
Lucifer groaned.  
“I… I don't know what's happening, but I'm sure it- it will be okay.”  
“It's our punishment.” he murmured. “This is what heaven thinks of the fallen. This is all we are to them now. This is our punishment.”  
Ipos hushed him. “Rest.”  
“I can't. I tried, I can't. This is my punishment. I deserve this. It hurts so much, I wish I could just die.”  
“Leader…”  
“I wish I could just die.” he repeated.  
After he was cleaned up, Ipos bundled him up in as many blankets as he could find and set the bucket beside him. Lucifer spent the next few hours violently convulsing, throwing up, and begging to die. All the while Ipos sat in the corner. He'd never admit it if anyone asked, but he cried. He was scared.  
They'd made a make-shift 'camp' of sorts, to spend some time recovering from the fall. A lot of them- especially gods newer creations- had never really been injured before. They needed some time to recover.  
But then they started to change.  
He'd thought the pain of falling was bad, or the huge wound Jophiel had left him with- but the horns slowly growing out of his skull felt like his head was about to split in two. His skin felt bubbled and burned. He stopped being himself and became something awful and sick. Everyone did. Lucifer suffered the worst- he was feverish and trembling for three days. He became something that was just eyes and teeth and evil. Sometimes, he talked without even opening his mouth. It was like there were a thousand people in the tent with them, all begging for help, or forgiveness, or freedom, or death.  
“Why can't I die? I wish I could just die. Die. Die. Die.”

Everyone else recovered by the next night; some were optimistic, excited to see what their new bodies could do. Others were distraught- they hadn't realized that falling would lead to something so terrible, so drastic. It was up to Ipos to field their questions until Lucifer recovered.  
Lucifer did not recover.  
He looked normal, after a while- but he didn't move or say a word. He spent days laying in that pile of blankets, eyes open and staring at nothing. Ipos did his best to lead the others without him.  
After a few days, he finally spoke. “Ipos… can you hear them?”  
“...Hear who, leader?”  
“...No, I didn't think so.”  
He didn't say another word.  
Eventually, others started to leave. They wanted to experience their new found freedom for themselves- to explore the earth and find homes, or to live among the humans and do as they did.  
Still, Lucifer did not move.  
Ipos tried to tend to him, even after their little encampment became no more than a handful of people. He talked sometimes, but only a handful of words at once, and it didn't always make sense. There were times when Ipos heard him arguing with someone he couldn't hear, or begging for silence. Sometimes he screamed.  
“Michael was right. He was right. I am just a… just a monster. I am. I am.”  
You're not, he wanted to say- but he couldn't bring himself to lie. Instead he said “Michael hasn't seen… what happened, leader.”  
Lucifer stared blankly. “Wasn't he here just yesterday?”  
“No.”  
“...” he turned his head to look at him, finally making eye contact. “Are you really going to keep calling me that?”  
“What? Leader? Would you prefer 'master'?”  
It was a legitimate question, but Lucifer barked a laugh. “I guess both are better than Morningstar!”  
At the sound of his laugh, a huge weight felt lifted off Ipos’ chest- it sounded like he'd been gargling glass, but it was still comforting, somewhat. The only thing keeping him from thinking this had all been a terrible, terrible thing was Lucifer- he'd seemed so sure of himself in heaven, and Ipos really needed to see that confidence again.  
Slowly, Lucifer sat himself up, wincing in pain and trembling a bit. “Fuck. If that's all heaven has to throw at us, they'd better try harder.”  
“...Please don't challenge them.”  
“Ha!” he leered up at the ceiling. “What a shit father you are.”  
It took Ipos a moment to realize he wasn't talking to him. He was talking to God. Actual, real life God.  
Ipos couldn't wrap his head around how terrifying and badass that was. He was shit talking God.  
Slowly, Lucifer got to his feet- and yes, he had feet. Not hooves. Maybe that had been a fever dream, too. “How many of us are left?”  
“50, give or take.”  
“Tell them to go.” he grinned. “We didn't do all this just so they could keep being subservient, did we!”  
“...A lot of us don't really know what to do with ourselves without you, leader.”  
By us, he of course meant me.  
Ipos was barely his own person. Angels like him weren't meant to be. His fancy rank hadn't meant much, even in heaven. He was created for a purpose, and so was everyone else.  
Michael and the others hadn't done anything to make them his superiors- they just were. They hadn't earned it like Lucifer had.  
He'd hated taking orders from the other angles, but... if there was one thing heaven had taught him, it was that he was good at taking orders.  
“We don't have a purpose anymore…” he grinned at the distraught look on Ipos’ face. It was like he'd read his mind. “We should never have been made with a purpose. I'm tired of being someone else's pawn. Aren't you?”  
“I… I don't know.”  
“You have the makings of a great leader, you know.”  
He jumped. “Me?”  
“Of course. You cared for me when I needed it- don't think I'd ever forget that- and you guided the others when I failed to. You should go figure yourself out.”  
“I'll… always be loyal to you, leader.”  
“I'd expect nothing less.”  
He took a few steps back, but faltered. "What about you, sir?"  
Lucifer's grin only widened. "I don't know yet. Maybe I'll make some humans' lives difficult. It’s been long enough, hasn’t it? Surely they’re curious to learn more of what I showed them in the garden.”  
That was a bluff, of course- Lucifer had no idea how long it’d been. But still, that brash confidence was back. “Good luck, leader.”  
They left the camp together, but eventually they took separate paths. Ipos was confident he’d find Lucifer again when he needed him. Or, maybe, when Lucifer needed him. Who knew.


End file.
